The Judicial Internship Program allows students to receive academic credit for work in a judge's chambers in San Diego. Students must work 60 hours per unit of credit. In addition to the work component of the Program, students enrolled in the program will have regular contact with the Program's instructor, Professor Horton, who will meet with students individually, assign various written projects (such as a journal and a final paper), and review samples of the student's written work from the internship. The program is limited to a total of 20 students per semester or summer term. Preference is given to students who are in, or who are about to enter, their final law school year. Professor Horton has a manual that explains the judicial internship process; interested students should be sure to pick up a copy of the manual. Students can secure their own internship position or can meet with Professor Horton for guidance in securing a placement. The internship is graded on a Pass-Fail basis.

Judicial Lawmaking examines the lawmaking role of courts. Do courts make law? If so, can this lawmaking by unelected judges be justified in our democratic system? And what if any constraints should be imposed on this undemocratic lawmaking? The focus is not on substantive law. However, in discussing the common law role of courts, examples will be drawn from tort law. Similarly, in the realm of constitutional law, major decisions (Brown v. Board of Education, Lochner v. New York, and Roe v. Wade) will be examined, and we will consider the influence of such decisions on attitudes toward judicial lawmaking generally. A primary focus is the conception of judicial lawmaking embraced—and expressly articulated—by the great judges who have shaped, and continue to shape, American law: Chief Judge Lemuel Shaw, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Justice Roger Traynor, and Judges Henry Friendly, and Richard Posner. The views of these judges are placed in the context of the law and legal scholarship (tort, constitutional, and jurisprudential) of their respective eras. The materials thus span the formative era of American law (the “Shaw era” 1830-1860), the seminal Lochner era, the “Traynor era,” and conclude by examining the contemporary tort scene and the recent jurisprudential writings of Judge Posner. Successful completion of this course satisfies the written-work requirement.

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